Sweet & Spicy Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Fall is here! Which means football season is here! Are you ready for some football?! This Sweet & Spicy Bacon Wrapped Smokies are a perfect addition to your tailgating feast! Not tailgating? That's ok, make them anytime.

These Sweet & Spicy Bacon Wrapped Smokies have a delicious sweet flavor with a hint of a spicy kick to them! We make these often and they are great to use up some of the peppers from the garden.

We have a good amount of jalapeno peppers in the garden. Our pepper plants did extremely good this year producing! I like to use fresh produce from the garden whenever possible.

Sweet & Spicy Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Ingredients:
1 pkg Lil Smokies ( 13 oz)
1 pkg bacon (16 oz)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp chili powder
jalapeno peppers (seeded and cut into slices)

Directions:
Spread 1 cup of brown sugar evenly in the bottom of your Crockpot. Cut bacon strips into thirds. Wrap 1 Lil Smokie and a jalapeno slice with a piece of bacon. Repeat until all the Lil Smokies are wrapped and place them in the Crockpot. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the
Smokies. Then sprinkle the chili powder on top. Cook in the Crock pot on High for 3 hours or until bacon is cooked completely.

*Add a bigger slice of jalapeno if you want more of a spicy taste.

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

These Smokies are so easy to make and a delicious mouth watering appetizer. They are easy and quick to prepare. Let them cook and come back and enjoy! Perfect for Sunday football!

I enjoyed cooking them in the Colts Crockpot from the Indianapolis Colts and my friends at Indiana Soybean Alliance. Do you have the best tailgate? Enter The Colts Best Tailgate here for a chance to win great prizes!

This recipe is linked to Whatcha Crockin Wednesday Week 15

What apples are best for what recipes?

Fall is here! That also means its apple season! There are so many amazing apple recipes, but sometimes there is a big difference in taste by which type of apple is used. Different varieties of apples all have different uses that they work best for.

There are so many flavors of fall, apples being one of the most common. You can get apples all year round, but they are in season here in the fall.

There are so many apple varieties. Some varieties are better for specific uses than others. Choose the right apple for your specific baking needs.

What apples are best for what recipes?

If you're making apple pie or applesauce know which apples are best. Here are some favorite apples for eating, cooking, and baking.

Eating apples  - Apple slices or a whole apple is a great snack for anyone to enjoy. Grab an apple that suits your favorite taste. Sweet or tart there are many.

Baking apples  - Some apples hold up better while baking. Choose the right apple for all your apple desserts.

Cooking apples - Apple cider, applesauce, apple butter are all great ways to use good cooking apples.


Apples Varieties                   Uses                                      Flavor

Cortland                                 Baking, Cooking, Eating      juicy and tart
Fuji                                        Eating                                   sweet and a little tart
Gala                                       Eating, Baking                     sweet and crisp
Granny Smith                        Eating, Baking                     crisp and tart
Golden Delicious                  Eating, Baking, Cooking      sweet and crisp
Honey Crisp                          Eating, Baking                     sweet and juicy
Johnathon                              Baking                                  tart and tangy
Jonagold                                Baking                                  sweet and tart
McIntosh                               Cooking                                sweet and crisp
Red Delicious                        Eating                                   sweet

Find a local apple orchard to go to this fall. Next time you go apple picking think about what you would like to do with the apples you pick and you can pick the right apples that are best for the recipe. Find your favorites for eating, cooking, and baking and enjoy several varieties of apples!

Check out my favorite apple recipes!

Apple Cream Pie

Fried Cinnamon Apples 

Apple Turnovers

Apple Salad

Oatmeal Sticks - A Rumford Complete Cookbook Recipe

It's back to school here in our town! The boys have been back for about 3 weeks! We had a great summer and looking forward to Fall. Looking through the Rumford Complete Cookbook this month, I was looking for something that could work for the kids' lunches or a snack and I came across this Oatmeal Sticks recipe.

I like to try to make up a variety of snacks for the kids homemade here and there. This recipe is super easy and doesn't take long to put together and bake.  Double or triple the batch to have more made up.

The Oatmeal Sticks recipe is on page 120 of the Rumford Complete Cookbook. Below is a photo of the recipe. 

Here is my version of this recipe.

Oatmeal Sticks

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup butter - softened 

1 1/2 cups scalded milk

1/2 cup oatmeal or rolled oats

3 tsp Rumford Baking Powder

Directions: 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder and mix together. Add the butter and blend in with the dry mixture. Scald the milk and then add to the oatmeal in a separate bowl and stir. Add the oatmeal/milk mixture to the dry mix and butter and mix together until well blended and smooth. Use hands and roll dough into sticks. I did about the thickness of a pencil, but a little shorter. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. I got 60 sticks out of one batch! 

I did have a small bowl of flour to add a little to the dough as I was rolling out the sticks that prevented it from sticking to my hands. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

My kiddos really enjoyed them. They were tasty plain and they really enjoyed dipping them in peanut butter! I will be making more again! A delicious, healthy, and easy snack! 

This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl Baking Powder but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.

Homemade Peach Crisp

I get so excited when peaches are in season as it is one of my favorite flavors of summer! Homemade peach crisp is a must to make a few times using the fresh peaches. The taste of fresh peaches with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg along with the oatmeal crisp is just delicious!! 

Every summer I try to can and freeze several cups of peaches to put up in the freezer or on my canned foods shelf to enjoy in the winter months. My husband's grandparents have a few peach trees on their farm and this year they produced exceptionally well, so of course we were sure to work up a good amount of peaches.

I like to can peaches and freeze them as well. I enjoy the canned peaches to eat right out of the can. They have are delicious and melt in your mouth. I like to freeze peaches to use for baking.

The frozen peaches are great to make peach crisp. But while the peaches are in season, I enjoy making it with fresh peaches. 

Homemade Peach Crisp 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 oats

1 cup butter - 2 sticks - cut into cubes

1 cup sugar 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

8 cups peaches 

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter. Blend together using a hand mixer until mixture becomes clumpy. This is your crisp topping, set aside. In another mixing bowl, combine the sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and mix together. Then add the peaches and mix. This is your peach layer. Pour the peach layer in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Then add the crisp topping layer over the peaches and spread evenly. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.
Let cool slighly. Enjoy the homemade peach crisp warm or cool. Add ice cream to enjoy it a la mode!

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

The peach filling is so yummy!!

I love my crisp with extra crisp!

Add vanilla bean ice cream to make the homemade peach crisp extra delicious!! My favorite way to enjoy it!

What are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Heirloom tomatoes! You may have heard of them and even eaten them a few times. You might grow them in your garden, or even buy them at the farmers market/grocery store. August is a prime month for fresh homegrown tomatoes (although often times gardeners' tomatoes are ready sooner) One of my favorite vegetables to look forward to in the garden are the tomatoes, all different kinds. Let's talk a little about heirloom tomatoes in this post, one of my favorite edible parts of summer!

So what does heirloom mean for heirloom tomatoes?
For heirloom tomatoes the word heirloom refers to the tomato seeds that have been harvested from certain varieties and passed down for generations because of their favorable and desirable characteristics and qualities.

How are they grown?
Heirloom tomatoes are grown the same way as any other tomato. Here are some pictures of green heirloom tomatoes just a few weeks before they will start turning colors.

Why do people want specifically heirloom tomatoes?
Heirloom tomatoes have not be changed for traits such as shelf life, color, and size/uniformity like the average tomato you see more often. Heirloom tomatoes have more of what people call and "ugly" look to them with different coloring, deep cracks, and bumps.

Where can you buy heirloom tomatoes?
You can find heirloom tomatoes at most farmers markets. A lot of farms that offer a CSA membership might add heirloom tomatoes to their weekly shares as well. Since they are becoming more popular, they are more readily available in several grocery stores as well.

Heirloom tomatoes are great to enjoy just as you would any other type of tomato. Be sure to try out some recipes specifically using heirloom tomatoes as well.

Savory Potatoes: A Rumford Complete Cookbook Recipe

Its garden season here in Indiana! Looking through the Rumford Complete Cookbook this month, I thought it would be nice to try a recipe using some sort of vegetable from the garden. We are definitely a potato eating family, so it seemed fitting to try a potato recipe. It sounded delicious and a great addition as a side to our meal.

We are harvesting a wide variety of produce in the garden right now, potatoes being one of them. Each Spring we plant several hundred pounds of a few different varieties to grow for our farmers market booth and ourselves.

Digging Potatoes

Washed Potatoes

The Savory Potatoes recipe is on page 67 of the Rumford Complete Cookbook. Below is a photo of the recipe from the book.

Here is my version of the recipe with some updates:

Savory Potatoes

Ingredients:
6 medium sized potatoes (I used fresh new potatoes, so I used an amount about equivalent to 6 medium potatoes.
2 small onions
1 pint milk
salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:
Clean and slice the potatoes into thin slices. Chop onion into small minced size pieces. In a baking dish, create a layer of potatoes. Then sprinkle lightly with onion. Add salt and pepper for taste. Repeat layers until out of ingredients. Add milk over the potatoes to cover them. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour or until potatoes are tender.

First layer of potatoes and onions

Milk added over all the layers

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

These potatoes smelled delicious as they were baking and reminded me of walking into my grandma's house as she was making a meal for the family. The smell of potatoes, onion, and pepper together takes me back to a smells of a homestyle meal.

This side dish was a great addition to our meal and will be enjoyed again!

This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl Baking Powder but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.